The World Assembly Strangers' Bar

[States of Glory WA Office]

OOC: He's drinking beer, though.

OOC: And...? Catholicism does not forbid drinking alcohol.

OOC: True, but don't most monks in any religious denomination remain abstinent?

[Valorem]

*looks down at telegram* *up at the sign hanging in front of the bar* *double checks.* *triple checks* Well...I have asked everywhere else...This has to be the place...Hope they accept Rupees...

The suit wear young ambassador opened the door and stepped inside the bar.

It was packed, to say the least. Numerous species lounged on bar-stools, were playing poker and billiards, or just sitting at tables or booths and talking about life. That is, until he walked in.

"...Uh...hi."

Silence.

The man fished out the paper from his jacket and looked down at it, then back up at the room.

"...I...I got this telegram....said that I was supposed to meet here...?"

Blank stares.

"...Uh...I'm the Ambassador of Skylus....name's Terry Nightgale."

Stephenson: "Hello there, Ambassador Nightgale - always good to see a new face. I'm pretty new around here as well."

[Sierra Lyricalia]

OOC: And...? Catholicism does not forbid drinking alcohol.

OOC: True, but don't most monks in any religious denomination remain abstinent?

OOC: Christ, I hope not!

[Imperium Anglorum]

OOC: And...? Catholicism does not forbid drinking alcohol.

OOC: True, but don't most monks in any religious denomination remain abstinent?

BBC just did a story on monks producing alcohol, beers, wines, etc. It's how they pay for it all.

[Skylus]

Nightgale merely stared at the man who had walked up to him.

"....And...who are you? Sorry, I haven't really met anyone..."

[Excidium Planetis]

Nightgale merely stared at the man who had walked up to him.

"....And...who are you? Sorry, I haven't really met anyone..."

"That is Ambassador Stephenson of Valorem, Sir." A well dressed man says and he leaves his corner booth to shake Nightgale's hand. "And I am Evander Blackbourne, WA Ambassador for the Fleets of Excidium Planetis. It is my pleasure to meet you."

[Araraukar]

Nightgale merely stared at the man who had walked up to him.

"....And...who are you? Sorry, I haven't really met anyone..."

"That is Ambassador Stephenson of Valorem, Sir." A well dressed man says and he leaves his corner booth to shake Nightgale's hand. "And I am Evander Blackbourne, WA Ambassador for the Fleets of Excidium Planetis. It is my pleasure to meet you."

"Miss Janis Leveret here," Janis said, joining the introductions. "I'm the ambassador for Araraukar; it's not a WA nation, but that's not a requirement anyway to join in on the arguments. Also, we're close allies with the greenery, and they are a WA nation. Also," she added hopefully, "the best way to make friends here, is to buy people drinks. Just don't make the mistake of buying a round for everyone, as that can wreck your national budget."

[Separatist Peoples]

Something that looks very much like a long, thin snake with leaf-like scales, slithers into the Bar, and climbs Mr. Bell's barstool's leg to get onto the counter before him, where it coils up. It is holding a slip of paper, or possibly plastic, in its mouth. It fluffs up its scales some more, but then remains motionless.

The paper reads:

We have found a new way to create plants capable of locomotion; rather than start from a vine blueprint and make it move, we started from a moving animal blueprint and made it a plant instead. Do you like it?

- the PPU hivemind

OOC: Yes, it's version 6.0 of the creeper vine. The hivemind has been busy.

Bell looks at the new scale vine and screams. He hurls it across the room towards the defenestration windows, but the vine has too little mass and Bell is too far away.

"NOPE! NOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPE!"

He walks quickly over to the burly bouncer standing at the entrance to the VIP lounge. He suddenly calms down, fishing an identification card out of his pocket and flashing it, grinning charmingly. "How's it going, Frank?"

The bouncer moves aside and holds open the door, giving the room a quick glance at the dangerously sleek and extremely sexy lounge. Bell goes back to looking panicked as he walks in.

"NOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPE!"

[Imperium Anglorum]

PARSONS: Sir Benjamin*, we've got a Legation that has a mighty fine barkeep — it's why I don't generally stop here anymore — if you want to get away from the freakish plant or something, I'll be happy to provide any assistance possible.

OOC: Reading through some older stuff, it came to my attention that the Democratic Empire knighted Bell for services to the realm vis-à-vis the World Space Administration. I forgot about that. Also knighted Markhov, but I don't think he accepted the bourgeois counter-revolutionary anti-proletarian title.

[Excidium Planetis]

Also knighted Markhov, but I don't think he accepted the bourgeois counter-revolutionary anti-proletarian title.

OOC
Tinfect put it in his signature, so presumably Markhov did accept the title.

[Imperium Anglorum]

Also knighted Markhov, but I don't think he accepted the bourgeois counter-revolutionary anti-proletarian title.

OOC
Tinfect put it in his signature, so presumably Markhov did accept the title.

OOC: Looks like he did!

[Whovian Tardisia]

Spinning around in his stool, Pink extends his hand to the newcomer. "Ambassador Rupert Pink, Whovian Tardisia. Always nice to see-"

Bell looks at the new scale vine and screams. He hurls it across the room towards the defenestration windows, but the vine has too little mass and Bell is too far away.

The leafy serpent flies through Pink's vision before landing on his feet. He lets out an unusually high pitched squeal and kicks the vine/snake back into the air. K-9 metallically barks at the creature, staring it down with his cold, mechanical eyes. Pink breathes heavily for a few seconds before retrieving his scotch and taking a sip. Turning back to the Skylusian ambassador, he speaks again. "Sorry about that. Reptiles and, well, similar creatures have always frightened me. Care for a drink? There's some lovely Mithuranian ale here."

[Valorem]

Stephenson looks quizzically at his personal communication device
Stephenson: "It seems my country has changed its national flag three times in the last hour. I'm very confused by this decision. I'll have to order all new flag pins now."

[Frustrated Franciscans]

OOC: Why is a holy man drinking alcohol?

OOC: He is a third order Franciscan Brother. And by extension Catholic.

[Frustrated Franciscans]

OOC: True, but don't most monks in any religious denomination remain abstinent?

OOC: But he's not a monk, he's a friar. (Please stop boiling him, he's a friar I tell you!)

Rule of the Third Order Regular Poverty? Yes. Chastity? Yes. Abstinence? Well not all the time. Since it's not Lent it is OK.

[States of Glory WA Office]

OOC: But he's not a monk, he's a friar. (Please stop boiling him, he's a friar I tell you!)

OOC: If you were a Viking, you would probably have fried a friar if you weren't going to make him your slave, but who in their right mind would fry a frier?

[Skylus]

Nightgale slowly swallowed and shook his head.
"Mr...Stephenson, I am terribly sorry, but I must recline your offer-I don't drink."

Then he noticed the vine....thing...

"....What is that?"

[Skylus]

Before anyone could answer Terry, the young man was alerted by something-his communicator.

It was blinking red...which could only mean one thing.

"....No. Of all the time's that this could happen, IT HAPPENS NOW?![i]"[/i]

He received multiple stares and strange looks from every corner of the room, including behind the sticky, stained bar counter.

"...I..."
Terry closed his eyes, drew a deep breath, reopened his eyes, and then continued.
"Another country has declared war on Skylus."

Stephenson stepped forwards. "And which country might this be?"

He received a tired glance in answer.
"....One that's attacked my country countless times before...they're to the South West of us..."
"Yes, but who[i] are they?"[/i]
"Hydialia."

[Sapient Candy]

Looking over towards the sentient peppermint, Pink cocks his head to the side, takes another swig, then looks again. The sentient peppermint is still there. Pink sighs and looks back to (barkeep) Neville. "Sometimes I wonder if I'm cut out for this." he says. Neville, as usual, does not react.

Peppermint Butler notices Pink's glance and calls to him. "Hello there, sir. I am Peppermint Butler, here to represent the Candy Kingdom. Is there something you find unusual about me?"

[Valorem]

OOC: Sorry I forgot to introduce myself in my post - Stephenson is Valorem's ambassador, and Blackbourne (who introduced us) is the ambassador from Excidium Planetis.

[Valorem]

Stephenson stepped forwards. "And which country might this be?"

He received a tired glance in answer.
"....One that's attacked my country countless times before...they're to the South West of us..."
"Yes, but who[i] are they?"[/i]
"Hydialia."

"I would offer the use of our orbital bombardment and defense network, but I doubt your enemies are within their range. You should look into deploying one of your own - it's prevented all armed conflict on our planet since it was deployed. Seems everyone's scared of bright blue beams from the sky simultaneously wiping out all of their military installations."

[Tinfect]

Bell looks at the new scale vine and screams. He hurls it across the room towards the defenestration windows, but the vine has too little mass and Bell is too far away.

Perhaps fortunately for the verdant serpent, while Markhov was significantly closer to the window, he was entirely lacking in phobias of plant life. "I do not suppose this creature is one capable of speech?" He says, uncertain of exactly which of the various plant life in the bar, if any, would respond. He retrieves several sheets of heavily printed paper from his coat, and begins to fill out each one, making occasional glances at the creature on the floor as he does so.

OOC
Tinfect put it in his signature, so presumably Markhov did accept the title.

OOC: Looks like he did!

OOC:
For the record, the only person in the Imperial Government (that actually matters, anyway,) who might support Socialism on Ideological grounds is the Civil Overseer, and he's been expanding private industries since getting the position. The original, and general reason the Imperium maintains such a system is that it centralizes power within the Imperial Government, and ensures that nothing within it can stand without/oppose the Imperium.

Now is also a good time to mention that the Imperium does not necessarily reflect my actual political beliefs.

[States of Glory WA Office]

OOC: Now is also a good time to mention that the Imperium does not necessarily reflect my actual political beliefs.

OOC: You mean to say that you're not a socialist imperialist who believes in the colonisation of space and the total closure of borders?

[Wallenburg]

Mikael and his fellow Wallenburgian appear to flicker, and then suddenly disappear. Several moments later, a tall, aging man in wire-frame glasses shoves open the doors to the bar and walks in, flanked by two men in military uniform.

"Ambassador, we need you to authorize more resources for refugees," says one of the uniformed men. "At this rate, we won't even be able to get the freshmen national delegates through the portal."

"I've already filed a request to World Assembly administration. I can only imagine they will understand our situation, and will provide us with more office space as soon as possible." The older man sits down at the bar and pulls out a rather brick-like cell phone.

"Paulson, Independence doesn't even have two days left. Every second your office wastes on doing jack squat is another hundred people eaten alive."

"Oh, shut up, Lieutenant. Go tell your men to actually shoot the damn things. If it weren't for the incompetence of this army, I wouldn't have to be making room for refugees at all."

[Potted Plants United]

Having curled up protectively when flung across the room by Mr. Bell, the leafsnake¹ uncurled itself and then proved that while it might look like a snake it wasn't one, by vertically crawling up - rather than coiling around, like it had done before - the table leg of the table Markhov was sitting at, and then the underside of the table², to emerge on the opposite side of the tabletop. It formed a coil and once more fluffed up its leaf-scales.

It looked like the leafsnake was merely observing the human opposite, but then a remarkable change in its appearance took place over the course of several minutes³; the leaf-green colour faded from its head, to be replaced with light brown reminiscent of dry leaves, while a stripe along what would have, in a normal snake, been its spine, became vivid orange and on both sides of it yellow which faded towards leaf-green at the edges of its body. Its snake-like eyes stayed green.

OOC: ¹Going to stick to "leafsnake" as the word for it, now, instead of creeper vine, since it's more accurate a description.

²A creeper vine has done the same move before - if I remember correctly, that scene ended with Mr. Bell hurrying out the door by walking on the tabletops, to avoid anything possibly lurking on the underside. His reactions are 25% of the reason I keep coming up with new things for PPU.

³This is the kind of colour changing that makes PPU's text-based message plants possible; using a form of chromatophores to create fairly quick colour changes. In animals the colour changes are much quicker, but the leafsnake doesn't need lightning-quick recolouring, and the slower change rate conserves energy.

Also going to try and remember to colour the word leafsnake the same way I do with the cactus.